Three ports and airports ? Mormugao port in Goa and the airports in Goa and Bangalore ? are set to become new hotspots for the pharmaceutical trade. The infrastructure at these locations is being spruced up to handle such cargo under the government’s move to allow new entry and exit points for medicine products in the western part of the country to ease congestion at the existing ports, especially the Nhava Sheva port in Mumbai and the Chennai port.
Currently, the country’s pharma imports and exports are being routed through six ports ? Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, Cochin, Nhava Sheva and Kandla ? and the airports at Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad. International trade in pharmaceutical products is permitted at select locations in India as medicine products need special handling in the supply chain. For instance, ports which deal with pharma cargo must have cold storage facilities as pharma products require temperature control throughout their supply chain movement.
The Drug Controller General of India has also issued guidelines which mandate that pharma goods should be stored separately from other commodities, keeping in mind the best practices adopted worldwide.
“The industry welcomes the government move to increase capacities to ease exports from the country. Alongside opening up new airports and ports to facilitate pharma trade from and to India, what is also commendable is that the government is working on bringing other best international practices to build and operate worldclass warehouse facilities at some of the ports and airports,” said P V Appaji, executive director, pharmexcil.
While the first dedicated pharma zone commssioned by GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd got up and running at the beginning of the year, airports at Mumbai and Delhi may follow suit soon. Creation and upgrade of infrastructure related to pharma zones at the airports is usually financed by the airport
agencies.
The Indian pharmaceutical industry, which is the third largest globally in terms of volumes, is expected to continue its double digit growth to touch $20 billion by 2015 and surpass $50 billion by 2020 from $10 billion in 2010-11, according to various estimates.
However, deterrents which may keep the pharma industry from reaching its full growth potential include inadequate transport and logistics, noted PwC in a 2009 study.